6.  The applicants lived in the village of Samashki, the Achkhoy-Martan District, in the Chechen Republic.
7.  The first and second applicants are the parents of Mr Ramzan Salmanovich Khadzhialiyev, born in 1977, and Mr Rizvan Salmanovich Khadzhialiyev, born in 1979. The third applicant is Ramzan Khadzhialiyev’s son.
8.  On the night of 14 to 15 December 2002 the first and second applicants, their sons and Ramzan Khadzhialiyev’s wife, Mrs Petimat Kubiyeva, were sleeping in the family home at 45 Lenina Street, in the village of Samashki. At about 3 a.m. on 15 December 2002 around eight unidentified men wearing camouflage uniforms broke into the house. They were armed with machine guns and spoke Russian without an accent. Some of them wore masks; the unmasked men had Slavic features. The applicants believed that the men belonged to the Russian federal troops.
9.  The first applicant and his sons got up and left their bedrooms. The servicemen forced the Khadzhialiyev men to the floor and then beat them with machine gun butts. They also beat the second applicant and Mrs Petimat Kubiyeva, then pregnant with the third applicant.
10.  In the meantime, several servicemen searched the house without producing a warrant, found some money and seized it. They also demanded the Khadzhialiyev brothers’ identity papers.
11.  Having severely beaten Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhialiyev, the servicemen tied and handcuffed the brothers. They locked the other family members in one room, did not allow the Khadzhialiyev brothers to dress themselves and dragged them away.
12.  The applicants did not see the servicemen leaving, but it was rumoured that they drove away in an UAZ vehicle.
13.  The investigation established that at about 3 a.m. on 15 December 2002 unidentified persons wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with machine guns had entered the house at 43 Lenin Street in the village of Samashki, kidnapped Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhialiyev and taken them away in an unknown direction.
14.  Immediately after the abduction of their relatives the applicants contacted their neighbour, Mr S., a police officer. In the morning of 15 December 2002 Mr S. informed the Department of the Interior of the Achkhoy-Martan District (“the Achkhoy-Martan ROVD”) of the Khadzhialiyev brothers’ abduction.
15.  During the following days one of the applicants’ relatives visited several State agencies and requested information as to the whereabouts and fate of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhialiyev. Officials assured him that their disappearance would be investigated.
16.  The first and second applicants continued to search for their sons and repeatedly wrote to various official bodies asking for assistance in finding the Khadzhialiyev brothers. They were assisted in their efforts by the SRJI.
17.  On 15 December 2002 the second applicant requested the Achkhoy-Martan inter-district prosecutor’s office (“the inter-district prosecutor’s office”) to assist in the search for her sons. On the same date an investigator of the inter-district prosecutor’s office examined the crime scene and found three firearm cartridges of 9 mm calibre.
18.  On 17 December 2002 the inter-district prosecutor’s office instituted an investigation into the disappearance of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhailiyev under Article 126 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (aggravated kidnapping). The case file was assigned number 63099.
19.  At about 3 p.m. on 19 December 2002 body parts of two dead males were found in a field belonging to the Sernovodskiy farm in the Sunzhenskiy District, approximately 10 kilometres from the village of Samashki. On the same date servicemen of the Department of the Interior of the Sunzhenskiy District (“the Sunzhenskiy ROVD”) examined the Sernovodskiy farm field and collected body parts of two dead males, fragments of clothing and splinters of an explosive device.
20.  According to the applicants, the remains were spread over an area of 500 square metres. Upon their examination it was established that the remains originated from dead bodies which had been decapitated and then blown up. The heads of those killed were not found.
21.  On 20 December 2002 an investigator of the inter-district prosecutor’s office examined the remains in the premises of the Sunzhenskiy ROVD. On the same date the first applicant and his relatives identified the remains as belonging to Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhailiyev. According to the applicants, the identification was based on the victims’ distinctive hands and fingers, as well as on the fragments of clothing.
22.  On 21 December 2002 the applicants’ family buried the remains of the Khadzhailiyev brothers.
23.  On 17 January 2003 the civil registry office of the Achkhoy-Martan District certified the death of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhailiyev. The date and the place of death were recorded as 21 December 2002, the village of Samashki. The cause of death was not recorded.
24.  On 27 and 28 December 2002 the inter-district prosecutor’s office granted victim status to Mrs Petimat Kubiyeva and to the second applicant, respectively.
25.  On 17 February 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office suspended the investigation and notified the applicants accordingly.
26.  On 12 June 2003 the first applicant requested the inter-district prosecutor’s office to find his sons’ killers. On 26 June 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office replied that the decision to suspend the investigation into the murder of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhailiyev opened under Article 105 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (aggravated murder) had been quashed on 27 June 2003 and assured the first applicant that the investigative authorities would take the requisite steps to solve the crime.
27.  On 27 June 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office informed Mrs Petimat Kubiyeva that the investigation in case no. 63099 had been resumed.
28.  On 27 July 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office informed the victims that the investigation into the murder of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhailiyev had been suspended for failure to identify the alleged perpetrators.
29.  On 18 September 2003 the first and second applicants requested an update from the inter-district prosecutor’s office as to the progress in the investigation. In reply, on 26 September 2003 they were informed that the investigation into the murder of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhailiyev had been opened on 17 December 2002 and then suspended on 27 July 2003, but that investigative measures were being taken to solve the crime and that the investigation was being supervised by the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic.
30.  On 20 October 2003 the first applicant complained to the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic about the inactivity of the inter-district prosecutor’s office and asked for assistance in finding his sons’ killers.
31.  On 27 October 2003 the first applicant asked the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic to resume the investigation in case no. 63099, to inform him on what date the investigation had been opened, to give a detailed account of the investigative measures taken and to let him study the forensic report drawn up after the discovery of the remains of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhailiyev.
32.  On 1 December 2003 the SRJI wrote to the inter-district prosecutor’s office repeating in essence the first applicant’s questions contained in his letter of 27 October 2003 and asking for an update on progress in the investigation.
33.  On 9 December 2003 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic forwarded the first applicant’s complaint to the inter-district prosecutor’s office.
34.  On 18 December 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office informed the first applicant that the investigation in case no. 63099 had been opened under Article 126 § 2 and then re-qualified under Article 105 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code after the discovery of the remains of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhailiyev. They also noted that the investigation had been ample and that, even though it had been stayed, measures were being taken to solve the crime. The first applicant was invited to the inter-district prosecutor’s office in order to study the forensic report at his convenience.
35.  On 23 December 2003 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic informed the SRJI that the investigation into the kidnapping of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhailiyev by “unidentified persons” had been opened under Article 126 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code and then stayed and that investigative measures were being taken to establish the Khadzhialiyev brothers’ whereabouts and to find those responsible for their deaths.
36.  On 20 January 2004 the SRJI requested the inter-district prosecutor’s office and the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic to clarify under which provision of the Russian Criminal Code the investigation had been opened and to provide detailed information as to its progress.
37.  On 12 February 2004 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic replied to the SRJI that the investigation had been opened under Article 126 § 2 and then re-qualified under Article 105 § 1 of the Russian Criminal Code and that the relatives of the victims of the crime had studied the forensic report. They also noted that investigative measures were being taken to solve the crime.
38.  On 3 August 2004 the SRJI requested the inter-district prosecutor’s office to inform them whether there had been any special operations conducted by the Russian federal troops in the village of Samashki in December 2002, whether any curfew had been set up and, if so, whether vehicles had been allowed to circulate freely after the curfew, and whether there had been any checkpoints based in the surrounding area of the village of Samashki.
39.  On 9 August 2004 the first applicant requested the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic to investigate the events of 15 December 2002 and to inform him of the progress in the proceedings. On 3 September 2004 the inter-district prosecutor’s office replied that the investigation had been opened on 17 December 2002 and stayed on 27 July 2003 and that investigative steps were being taken to identify those responsible for the deaths. On 13 September 2004 the inter-district prosecutor’s office sent the first applicant an identical letter.
40.  On 4 April 2005 the SRJI requested information on the progress in the investigation from the inter-district prosecutor’s office and the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic.
41.  On 1 June 2005 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic replied to the SRJI that the contents of the investigation file were confidential pursuant to Article 161 of the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure (“CCP”).
42.  On 19 December 2002 the inter-district prosecutor’s office questioned as a witness Mr O.A., an employee of the Sernovodskiy farm. Mr A. submitted that at about 10 a.m. on 19 December 2002 he had found several body parts and a shell hole with a diameter of 1.5 m near a motorway and informed the ROVD of it.
43.  On 21 December 2002 the inter-district prosecutor’s office re-classified the crime investigated in case no. 63099 as aggravated murder punishable under Article 105 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code.
44.  On 21 December 2002 the inter-district prosecutor’s office questioned Mr M., a Sunzhenskiy ROVD policeman. Mr M. submitted that at about 2.30 a.m. on 15 December 2002, while a group of the Sunzhenskiy ROVD servicemen had been patrolling the village of Samashki, he had seen two UAZ vehicles without registration number plates and a few armed persons in camouflage uniforms standing near the vehicles. The armed men had explained that they had come from Grozny to carry out a special operation. Some thirty minutes later Mr M. had heard shots. Then around fifteen armed men in camouflage uniforms had arrived from Lenin Street, got into the UAZ vehicles and driven away. Mr M. had gone down Lenin Street and met the applicants who had told him about the Khadzhialiyev brothers’ abduction.
45.  On 25 December 2002 the inter-district prosecutor’s office questioned Mr Yu.A, a Sunzhenskiy ROVD policeman. The witness submitted that on the night of 15 December 2002 he had been on duty at the police precinct of the village of Samashki. At about 2.30 a.m., while patrolling the village, he had seen two UAZ vehicles without registration number plates and reported it to the precinct. His colleague Mr M. had talked to the men in the vehicles. Thirty minutes later around twenty armed and masked men had got into the vehicles and driven away.
46.  On 26 December 2002 the inter-district prosecutor’s office questioned Mr M.A., Ramzan and Rizvan Khaliadzhiyev’s uncle, who gave an account of the events of the night of 15 December 2002 and submitted that he had identified his nephews’ clothes.
47.  On 27 December 2002 the inter-district prosecutor’s office granted victim status to the second applicant and to Mrs Petimat Kabiyeva and questioned them.
48.  On 27 December 2002 an investigator of the inter-district prosecutor’s office ordered the Sunzhenskiy ROVD and the Achkhoy-Martan ROVD to take investigative measures in order to identify the perpetrators and eye-witnesses and to obtain information about the Khadzhialiyev brothers. In reply he was informed that investigative measures, although thus far fruitless, were being taken, that eye-witnesses had not been identified, that neither the UAZ vehicles nor those who had identified themselves as servicemen of Grozny law enforcement agencies had been found and that the Khadzhialiyev brothers had had positive references from their fellow villagers.
49.  On 27 December 2002 the inter-district prosecutor’s office ordered the experts of the Ministry of the Interior of the Chechen Republic to carry out a ballistic examination of the three firearm cartridges and a pyrotechnic examination of the explosive device’s splinters. It was established that the cartridges had been fired from a Makarov handgun of 9 mm calibre or from another analogous handgun. The cartridges did not correspond to those kept in the forensics department. Furthermore, the experts established that the splinters were “fragments of a jacket of an industrially manufactured shrapnel shell of 152 mm calibre, which [was] used by illegal armed groups on the territory of the Chechen Republic as [a] self-made explosive device for terrorist attacks”.
50.  On 4 and 15 January 2003 two witnesses – the applicants’ relative and their neighbour – were questioned.
51.  On 11 January 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office ordered the forensics bureau of the Chechen Republic to carry out an expert post-mortem examination of the remains identified as those of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhialiyev. It was established that the remains were body parts of at least two persons which had been dismembered as a result of the damaging effects of an explosion.
52.  On 3 February 2003 the first applicant was questioned as a witness.
53.  On 17 February 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office suspended the investigation in case no. 63099 for failure to identify those responsible and notified the second applicant and Mrs Petimat Kabiyeva accordingly.
54.  On 7 June 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office requested the operation and search bureau no. 2 of the Main Department of the Ministry of Interior for the South Federal Circuit (“ORB-2”) to identify the policemen who had arrived in the Achkhoy-Martan District to carry out special operations. In reply they were informed that on the night of 15 December 2002 no arrest operations had been carried out in respect of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhialiyev.
55.  On 27 June 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office resumed the investigation.
56.  On 29 June 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office requested information concerning the Khadzhialiyev brothers from the Achkhoy-Martan ROVD. In reply they were informed that the criminal police had no information capable of compromising Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhialiyev. On the same date the inter-district prosecutor’s office requested the prosecutor’s office of the Zavodskoy District of Grozny to establish which law enforcement agencies had carried out special operations in the Achkhoy-Martan District between 13 and 17 December 2002. In reply they were informed that the law enforcement agencies of the Zavodskoy District had not carried out any such operations.
57.  On 30 June 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office requested information on Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhialiyev from the Department of the Federal Security Service for the Chechen Republic. They were informed that the two missing men had not been the subject of any investigation.
58.  On 3 July 2003 Mr F., one of the policemen who had collected the remains of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhialiyev on 19 December 2002, was questioned as a witness.
59.  On 4 July 2003 Mr E.M., a police expert who had participated in the examination of the scene of the incident on 19 December 2002, was questioned.
60.  On 5 July 2003 Mr Yu.A. was again questioned.
61.  In July 2003 the inter-district prosecutor’s office questioned a number of acquaintances of Ramzan and Rizvan Khadzhialiyev.
62.  On 27 July 2003 the investigation was suspended for failure to identify those responsible and the relatives of the victims were notified accordingly.
63.  On 9 June 2007 the inter-district prosecutor’s office quashed the decision of 27 July 2003 and resumed the investigation in case no. 63099.
64.  Despite specific requests by the Court the Government did not disclose the majority of the contents of the investigation file in case no. 63099, providing only copies of decisions to suspend and resume the investigation and to grant victim status. Relying on the information obtained from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Government stated that the investigation was in progress and that disclosure of the documents would be in violation of Article 161 of the CCP, since the file contained information of a military nature and personal data concerning the witnesses or other participants in the criminal proceedings.